We carried out an announced inspection of Barking Main Office on 19 September 2018. Barking Main Office is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, the service provided personal care to three people in their homes. This was the first inspection of the service since it registered with the CQC.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the legal requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and the associated regulations on how the service is run. The registered manager was not present at the time of the inspection. The operations manager and business manager supported us with the inspection.

Some risks to people were not always robustly managed. We found some care plans did not contain suitable and sufficient risk assessments to effectively manage risks. We made a recommendation in this area.

Medicines were being managed safely. Records showed that people had received their medicines on time.

People’s ability to communicate were recorded in their care plans. However, there was no information on how staff should communicate with people and particularly how staff would make information accessible to people.

Audits had not identified shortfalls with risk assessments and how to communicate effectively with people to ensure prompt action could be taken and people received high quality care.

People were given choices with meal times and there was information on how to support people with meals.

Staff were aware of how to identify abuse and knew who to report abuse to, both within the organisation and externally.

There were arrangements in place to ensure staff attended care visits on time. Staff told us they had time to provide person centred care and the service had enough staff to support people.

Pre-employment checks had been carried out in full to ensure staff were suitable to provide care and support to people safely.

Staff had been trained to perform their roles effectively. Formal one-to-one supervisions of staff had been completed regularly, to ensure staff felt supported at all times. People were being cared for by staff who felt supported by the management team.

Pre-assessment forms had been completed to assess people’s needs and their background before they started using the service. Reviews were held regularly to identify people’s current preferences and support needs.

People were supported to access healthcare if needed. Staff knew if people were not feeling well and who to report to.

People’s privacy and dignity were respected by staff. Relatives told us that staff were caring and they had a good relationship with them.

Relatives and staff were positive about the management team. People’s feedback was sought from surveys.

No complaints had been received but people and relatives had access to complaint forms and staff were aware of how to manage complaints.

Staff were aware of the principles of the Mental Capacity Act [2005]. Staff sought people’s consent before supporting them.